International: Three in One

While people talked, more earnestly than ever before, about a possible
European federation, the Lowlands countries did something about it. The
Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg (an economic unit which would
likely rank third after U.S. and Britain as the world's biggest
free-enterprise producer and customer) were well on the way to economic
unity. Last week they were represented at the International Trade
Conference (see below) by one delegation, had given other nations
tentative lists of common customs duties.

Since 1943 the three have formed a monetary union, which fixes the
exchange rate of each currency with the other two. Now they are...